Gina took a deep breath before entering the tiny square room. Wyre was right, it smelled like the back of a bin lorry. She was grateful that he had his shoes and socks on this time as watching him pick might have sent her over the edge.
‘Colin Wray, thank you so much for coming in. This interview is voluntary and will be recorded. Do you need a drink before we start?’
‘Nah, I wouldn’t mind a puff. Is it okay to smoke?’ He pulled a roll-up from a worn looking tobacco tin.
‘I’m afraid not. This interview shouldn’t last too long. You’ll be able to go outside and smoke then.’ He threw the roll-up back into the tin and clicked the lid on, then took a mint from his pocket and began to roll it around his gummy mouth, making sucking noises that were already making the hairs on the back of Gina’s neck stand to attention.
Wyre started the recording device.
‘Interview with Colin Wray, aged seventy years old. DI Harte and DC Wyre present. Date is Saturday the eleventh of May, 2019,’ Wyre confirmed.
Gina continued with the taped introduction then leaned forward to question Colin. ‘Please tell me again, in your own words, what happened in the early hours of Monday the sixth of May, the bank holiday Monday.’
‘Not again. I already told you what I know when you came to my house. I don’t know any more.’
‘Please, we need it recorded formally. Jade Ashmore was murdered that night and as her neighbour, we’re sure you want to cooperate and help us find the perpetrator too.’
He sighed and scratched his head. Bits of thin grey hair parted to reveal crepe-like skin. Gina cast her eye over his scalp and forehead. Sophie Dobbins had hit her attacker with a shoe. Surely, if Colin Wray had been her attacker, there would have been some sort of mark left behind. Colin’s hair was too thin and light to disguise injuries. Maybe her counter-attack hadn’t been as hard as she had thought, or the attack mark was below his neckline. As Colin relayed the exact same details as before, Gina half-listened and half tuned out, trying to figure out what was behind Colin’s persona. His records showed that he was a soldier in his younger years and a fitness coach later in life; that would explain why he still looked fit. He still had the strength to be considered a suspect.
Fitness coach? Aimee was a personal trainer and he had made some comments about her that hadn’t sat well with Gina during their last conversation. Her mind ran through his previous record. One of his charges included that of sexual assault. He’d been convicted as CCTV evidence showed him rubbing against a seventeen-year-old girl on a train. He had strength and he also had a warped sense of entitlement when it came to women. But why could he possibly have wanted to kill Jade? Maybe he’d seen her with Rhys and was jealous. Gina knew jealousy to be a powerful emotion. If he’d been spying on Jade’s husband, Noah, while he was kissing their babysitter in the garden, what was to say that he hadn’t been watching Jade for a long time? He could easily have taken a bag with his chosen murder weapon and followed her as she went looking for her husband. With his military background, he’d be well versed in surveillance techniques. They needed his DNA. A test of the blood on the branch may give them all they needed to get a search warrant and make an arrest.
Colin coughed as he smiled. ‘And there you have it. That’s me done. I’m off for a smoke now.’ His gaze landed on Wyre’s lips and Gina could see him licking his own.
‘Mr Wray?’
‘What?’
‘We will need to eliminate you from our enquiries. To do this we will need to take a swab.’
‘But I ’aven’t done anything.’ He slammed both hands, palms down on the table.
Gina remained silent and stared at him. He slumped back in the creaky chair. ‘We could be looking to make an arrest and caution you. You can see how this looks, Mr Wray. If you didn’t do anything, this test will show that.’
His beady eyes met hers. Who would blink first, him or her? He did. She smiled. His shoulders dropped as he leaned forward and opened his mouth wide. White fur covered his tongue and a sulphuric odour escaped from his mouth. Gina took small shallow breaths.
Wyre put on a pair of latex gloves. ‘I’m just going to pop this in your mouth and wipe it against your cheek. It won’t hurt.’ His gaze turned to Wyre as she continued. ‘All done.’
‘Thank you, Mr Wray. You’ve been very helpful. We’ll show you out.’ Gina opened the door and the man couldn’t hurry out fast enough. ‘Get those straight to Bernard and Keith for analysis. Oh, and I want Dawn and Steven in. I know we checked Dawn’s story earlier but I want it on record. They are the common denominator at the moment.’
‘Will do, guv.’
Gina left the room and caught up with Colin Wray. He shakily took the roll-up from his tin and slipped it between his lips. As she led him to reception, she passed PC Smith in the corridor. ‘Can I speak to you in my office?’ she called.
He nodded and continued. She smelled the sleeve of her jacket. Colin Wray’s scent was now embedded into her for the day. Going home for a quick shower before interviewing him had been a pointless exercise.
As she approached her office door, noting that she had less than ten minutes until the interview with Rex, she spotted PC Smith waiting for her to arrive.
Rex who? She didn’t know anything about the man she’d met up with, slept with, let into her home.
‘I have a call-out so I need to be out of this station in five,’ he said as he followed her in. They both sat.
‘That’s okay, it won’t take long.’
‘I’ve updated the system with everything that happened last night. I thought we might get more but we mostly got hit on – well Kapoor mostly got hit on – and I remember the victim Sophie, she kept looking my way. Just before you called us out, the man in the hat came in and said one of his old girlfriend’s had been lurking around outside spying on him. Everyone had a bit of a laugh about it and carried on. Then we left. I’ve been thinking about that all night. Who was his ex-girlfriend?’
Gina felt her face warming up. He was referring to her. How could she throw Smith off the scent? ‘We’ve eliminated her, she isn’t a worry.’
‘I haven’t seen anything on the system. Haven’t you updated it yet?’
